The Ballad of a Boy Named Suicide.

[Sage]

Kraven

As soon as Ana left the room with the girl, he calmed himself and focused on bringing the boy down to a similar level. He imbued Edicius with pleasant thoughts and the feeling that he had found true happiness for eternity. It would not take long to turn an unconscious and sick little girl, so he moved forward to prepare to restrain Edicius, who immediately and absolutely lost his hold on reality. Kraven forced a flash of blinding light at him, but he seemed to be completely and utterly unaffected. Kraven moved before him to look at his eyes, and they were white, glazed over like a blind man.

His mind boggled for the span of a half a second before a pillar of earth erupted from beneath him and speared him to the wall of the opposite side of the room. He groaned as he clutched the bleeding void in his chest, and felt the burning that the dirt and rubble filling him caused. Ana entered the room, and Edicius turned his attention on her. Kraven reacted immediately and without thought of his own injury. An armored fist crashed into the earth binding him, and it shattered into oblivion. Kraven dropped to the ground as blood and crushed rock poured out of the gaping hold in his stomach. He stepped in front of Anabel, directly in front of Edicius and held one hand directly in the blind boy's face, his free hand found his sword and brought it up in preparation to strike.

" Say the word, My Lady. He can be easily replaced. "

[Jen]

"She is beyond your scope now, child." Ana strode forward in a fury, fully aware of what was going on with Kraven. She liked him, damn it. A firm hand on Kraven's shoulder pushed him aside as Ana's form shifted once again. Brown hair, brown eyes, tan skin. She was a huntress in form and frame. Kraven would know what was going to happen. The kid could try to kill her, but his blind anger wouldn't key him into what she really was -- what would really need to happen in order to kill her.

"If my man dies, she will die too. I can do that to her now. You will obey me, boy." Ana reached out to Ed with one slender hand. There was no pleading, there was no bargaining to be had. Ana was all business now, and Ed could try to run -- but if he proved to be less than she desired he would be chased by a den of elite Vampires. If he somehow managed to evade them, she would kill the girl. There was no remorse in her eyes. Ed could have no idea what he was toying with.

"Your friend's fate depends on your next move. You can try to kill me, but you will die regardless. I can be tempted to overlook this transgression, should Kraven survive. If he dies, she dies. Remember that you little brat. I saved her life and you try to kill one of my servants." Ana clicked her tongue and shook her head in an attempt to reign in her anger. Her forms flickered for a moment before she settled back on the dark raven haired feeding form.

"You will put this establishment back on the ground, now. You mistake me for a fool, and I do not take that lightly." He could have avoided his fate, but then what worth would he have been to Anabel if he just rolled over and accepted fate? At least the girl had been sick, though hardly willing.

[Sage]

Kraven

Kraven did not protest to being pushed aside, but he never stopped trying to defuse the boy. He sped through the boy's mind at insane speeds to find what he needed as Ana snapped at him. Confusion. Confusion ran rampant and the boy's spirit faltered momentarily, his grasp on rage slipped.

Edicius

Edicius struggled with the weight of the woman's empire. She accused him. And why did she have more fear for that warrior's life than her own, she was a woman who did not wield nearly a dangerous of a weapon as Kraven or he, himself. His eyes cleared and he felt the weight even more without the aid of his Totesauge. " And you, why are you not worried for yourself, everyone else in this building. If I do what I'm planning we all go. If I lose her, everyone goes! You say you saved her, then why hide her, why treat her away from me? What are you people, and get out of my HEAD! "

Kraven

Kraven found what he needed, and then some. His focus quickly shifted to Anabel, whom he stared completely through, with his hand focused on Edicius. From that point, Anabel would appear as Edicius' own mother, whom had saved him from death. " You will put this establishment back on the ground, now. "

Edicius

He shuddered, and wept silently as he lowered his hands, and the building rumbled with the stress of finding it's home again. Edicius dropped to his knees, and stared up at Anabel with those same blind, and tear-filled eyes. But it was not rage that triggered it in him this time. It was grief. " I'm sorry...I-I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to kill him, I was just doing what you said! I was just trying to survive. "

Darkness. Edicius' world went dark, different from his blurry blindness, no thought, no sound.

Kraven

As soon as he was sure Edicius was unconscious, Kraven's own body began to fail. He stumbled backward and crashed through a perfectly good display case full of antiques, furthering the speed of his bleeding. There was a fist-sized hole in his stomach, and he was slowly bleeding out. He attempted to apply pressure himself, but he lacked the strength to intervene on his own behalf, medically. He was able to regenerate at a rate unnatural to humans, but only when exposed to direct sunlight, and even then; by the time the sun rose he would be in far too deteriorated a shape to survive on that alone.

He could not become a vampire, however. He had seen what it had done to other with similar abilities to his own. It would reset them, and he seriously doubted he would regain his control of light at all. And how would he protect his Mistress during the day as he had, if he could not step into it. Being useless to Anabel was a thought that Kraven could hardly bare. As the room began to spin and the images of Ana and Edicius become hazy, Kraven reached for a knife tucked into the side of his boot and raised it to his own throat.

[Sophitia]

She swam in nightmarish forms that constantly beckoned her into a deep sleep. It would happen, but not willingly. She tried to fight the demon (Ana), but failed. In her mind, she was in Hell, the place her parents warned her of. She had always been taught to be with God and treat her powers like a gift created by Him. Even if she was just a child, she had already shown signs of the brainwashing. People without a pure aura were deemed evil, full of darkness and hate.

Sophitia felt the pain, the sudden cut that had been brought by Ana. She felt herself drink something sticky and smooth. Her body screamed from the madness that encompassed her soul. She could no longer fight these daring urges. Her little body shook, until she began to cry out for Ed. He had been her brother- beckon, that had guided her to this Hell. She should be angry with him, but right now she wanted to be with him.

When she awoke, she would damn all of them. But how could you damn something, that already lived in Hell?

[Jen]

"Put that knife down. You're of no use to me dead." Ana was looking over her shoulder at Kraven. Her eyes were dark with desire, whether it be for the child she was kneeling over, or for Kraven -- one would never know. Kraven was the one true ally she had in the world of darkness that she had created for herself -- and perpetuated by creating more of her kind.

Ana descended on Ed with a vengence. The little brat would never be as close to death, without dying, as he would be now. As he lay prone on the floor Ana sliced with her sharp razor along the jugular vein. As the blood poured out of the child, Ana caught some in a small silver cup and set it to the side before pulling the boy's neck up to her mouth savagely. At this point she didn't care about her dress, and she only wanted vengence and to turn the brat into her own brood. He might try to rebel against her but he and the girl would never be able to kill her. They may resent what she made them, but they would be her children and subject to her decree.

Once Ed was almost completely drained, on the verge of death itself, Ana poured his own blood back into his mouth -- forcing his mouth open with an unfriendly hand. He wouldn't die. He would get to feed later when Sophi did.

"Mistress? The girl is moving. What in the..." Ana growled at Blythe as her pretty eyes settled on Kraven.

"Get out of here."

"But he is weak. We could change him. He is..." That was as far as Blythe got as Ana lunged across the room like an animal. She snarled savagely at Blythe and shoved her through the door back into the room near Sophi. She pulled the door closed and straightened herself, smoothing her hair and the folds of her bloodied dress. Her face was clean but the dress would have to be tossed. She made her way to Kraven and pressed her hands against his wound, holding his body together as she looked at him pointedly.

"Heal yourself. You are no good to me dead. I can't hold Blythe off much longer. She fancies that you would take her as a mate if you were a vampire." Ana knew otherwise. No other human or vampire was as devoted to her selflessly as Kraven was.

[Sage]

Kraven

Kraven stopped cold as Ana addressed him. Unlike her brood, he was not compelled to obey her, at least not in a similar sense. But he did, it was law, simple as breathing that Kraven not question her. He immediately dropped the knife, and felt the sting of her backhanded comment. To be of no use to her, that was perhaps the one thing Kraven Solaris feared. He attempted to hold himself together, but he felt himself slipping fast. And then she bounded at Blythe, who had shown her face in the room for the briefest of seconds before looking at him once the wrong way and being tackled by the Source of All Vampires.

His eyes widened at the display, Ana had never had to defend him before, from anything. To think he was so weak now that a vampire short of Ana herself was a threat to him. Mixed emotions swirled like a storm inside him as he fought to stay alive. He experienced something halfway between disappointment, pain, and arousal as he slowly bled to death on the same floor as the now-dying Edicius. Surely he was greater than this boy, of more use. Would he allow the little rat to show him up? As Ana came back to him in her haste, he dared something he never would have thought himself capable of.

" I'm sorry for this. " As she held his entrails in their proper place, Kraven lunged at her with all of himself and kissed her as though she was a lover he would never be able to see again. His lips were firm against hers, despite his predicament, and he grew colder simply from the stress, but he was not done yet. As he pulled slowly away from Anabel after what seemed like a century of pleasure, Kraven smashed an armored fist through the floor, dropping himself down one floor. He made sure to ever-so-gently push Ana away from the hole he had made before he slipped through it, and as he collapsed the table he had landed on, he emitted a brilliant light from his every pore. This was not his usual trick of lights, this was sunlight, generated purely from Kraven's will to survive.

Light healed him, and though he could fire brief and small flashes of sunlight, as he had in the past to subdue vampires, this was something altogether different. It poured from him continuously as his flesh began to knit itself back together with a life of it's own. Kraven's own will to live was not an especially strong one, but to disappoint or even anger his Mistress was more than he could ever endeavor to bear, and so he lived, now. And he would be reminded from this, just how mortal he was, and never would he be so careless as to allow any mortal to damage Anabel's prized plaything. The taste of blood in his mouth burned him, something he could not explain, and he sputtered as the taste of the boy he had acquired from Ana already diminished the memory of his Mistress' delicousness.

He groaned as he generated new nerves, and they began to simultaneously fire, and reconnect to his brain. It was an intense and indescribable pain, one which he had seldom experienced before. He spoke vindictively, and so quietly it couldn't have possibly be heard by anyone but himself.

" Damnable child, you know I could still replace him if you'd let me... "

[Sage]

Edicius

Edicius involuntarily spat his own blood. Subconsciously, it was purely spite of these creatures that drove the nourishment from him, though the new nature in him fought his attitude, even in sleep. He would have had no defense as Ana drained him, though now his mind fought back as he struggled with the sickness spreading through him. To those unfamiliar with Edicius, it would seem like a low-range earthquake, an oddity but one of no real consequence or damage. A low rumbling that started under the manor and spread out no more than a mile. In his dreams, he thought he could hear Sophi calling to him, but he was not so powerful as Kraven to defy death for loyalty, and so he slept.

[Sophitia]

She was in a shadow-land. Her heart was not her own, but becoming something much stronger. She could breath, without pain, for the first time in her life. That was when the shadows became thick and then burst into a thousand stars. Sophitia sat straight up in her bed. The stars were moving on their own. Her vision cleared and she realized that they were not part of a dream. Tiny spiders were crawling along the floor and up the walls into hidden crevices. They resembled starlight, from their albino body and silver aura. She was entranced. The things, in the walls, talked to her in their own voice. She could feel her skin crawling, feeling their movement as if they walked across her. Her eyes lit up, with anticipation, when she realized she had been the one to call them away.

When she let her mind calm down, she weakly stood up on her feet and collapsed. Spiders streamed out of the walls and encircled her petite form. Their beauty was hers. She knew that she could control their every whim, their auras speaking to her with ease. They were such small creatures, which took no real effort to controlling. She kept them around her, feeling comfort by their constant glow.

[Jen]

Blythe shook her head and held her breath as she heard the floor splinter on the other side of the door. Her eyes closed for a moment, thinking that perhaps the man with the good looks and tender flesh had been killed by the Mother. She hurried to where Sophi was laying, knowing that if she slipped on this duty that she would quickly be out of Ana's good graces. Her auburn hair shone like a beacon when she opened the door, letting light from a hallway lamp fall past her slender body and fill the room. When, at first she didn't see Sophi, Blythe's eyes widened. The child couldn't have gotten far! She couldn't have been weaker in her life until this moment -- but then she saw her.

"Why she wanted you I will never know." Blythe walked over to Sophi and watched her peculiar habits as the spiders crawled over her. "They taste good, Sophi. Here, look." Blythe picked one of the spiders up, watching its legs wriggle frantically for a moment before she popped the creature in her mouth and chewed. It tasted a little like fruit, for whatever reason she didn't know. "Ana keeps them around because she finds them pretty. Do you like the Spiders, Sophi?"

------

Ana felt herself pushed from Kraven as his lips left hers. She was stunned for a moment, and as the light erupted through the hole in the floor she hissed and scurried to the far end of the room, hiding in the shadows. The light hurt her eyes so she diverted her attention to the shattered window, taking in the night sky. It was a beautiful night, one of the first in the cold season that would come. The moon was daily approaching the full roundness that would bring the Werewolves out.

When the light faded Ana bolted to the hole in the floor, the night of stars capable of giving her the vision she needed. She leapt over the fallen body of Ed, who was turning even now into her own son.

"Kraven! Kraven are you alright?" She could see him on the table, and distantly she realized she was going to flog Ed for breaking her home, and she would have to buy new furniture. As nimble as a fox, Ana slipped through the hole in the floor and landed with only the whisper of her dress to announce her presence. She quickly knelt next to Kraven and touched his face to feel his familiar warmth. He would be alright. His blood, though, was everywhere.

"Fantastic..." Ana muttered under her breath as she grabbed a knife off of Kraven's belt and slit the front of her ruined dress and tore it off of her body. Wearing her bodice and a short slip, Ana listened for the children that would be roaming the halls, smelling the blood that was spilled behind the doors. The boy and girl would be fine they would be unharmed, already turning. Kraven, however...

Using her considerable strength, Ana pulled Kraven to her body and moved him from the broken table and laid him on a clean spot on the floor. He would be unable to protest, even if he had a fraction of his strength. She returned to her task at hand, and threw her bloodied dress out into the hallway with the vampires. They looked at her, somewhat scandalized at being caught.

"Burn it. Do not come into this room for any reason. I am...busy." Some might seen Kraven's prone form on the floor, but none doubted his prowess. They merely nodded, not willing to disturb the Mother in her own persuit of jaded happiness. They knew that the children had been turned, and so no doubt she was sated and fulfilled. Ana slammed the door on her curious and dirty minded Vampire children and hurried about the room, cleaning up Kraven's blood.

As the mother of all vampires, Ana was acutely aware of how delicious Kraven's blood smelled. Her own sating was the only thing keeping her from turning him in his weak state. That she was in love with the man, well that barely crossed her mind. His safety in her den of demons was her utmost concern. Her heart, had she a beating one, would have beat erraticly as she used table cloths to clean up the blood, her own nature making her suck the blood from her fingers. Gods but he would be a fulfilling meal...

No. Ana hurried over to the large fireplace at the end of the hall, having to hop over a gap in the floor where Ed's ravaging had torn her foundation in two. To a casual glance, Ana would look like an angel in white, or a fairy in fine form -- carrying bloody rags. She tossed the cloth in the fireplace and struck flint against the stone to catch some tinder. She tossed the tinder on the cloth and watched as the trashed room burst into firelight -- the cloth began to smolder and smoke before finally catching and lighting and warming the room.

"Kraven?" Ana hurried over to him, sucking the remainder of his blood from her fingers and hands. She couldn't help herself, and it would be best for her to be rid of it all now than have him hunted later. It didn't even dawn on her to go find a dress. Kraven had seen her like this before as she debated on what to wear for meetings.

[Sophitia]

Yes, she liked them. However, she did not like this new person. This person irritated her beyond belief- it was a strange emotion for a small girl. Her eyes snapped toward Blythe. She began to stare at her, watching her eat one of the spiders. Her vision zoned in on the spider parts falling out of Blythe's mouth. She was angry. They were hers...not Ana's, Kraven's, Ed's, or Blythe's.

“I like them, but I do not like you!” She tried to push Blythe out of the ring of spiders. She became more upset when the spiders scattered and retreated into the crevices of the walls. Sophitia had been so happy and relaxed.

Her mind formed a storm of hatred for Blythe. It didn't take much to set Sophitia off in her current state. Her powers were still untrained and immediately reacted to her sudden mood swings. She stood up, where the spiders had been crowding her. She was alone now- she didn't want to be alone.

Sophitia's mind probed Blythe's memories. She was searching for something very specific: fears. Smiling, she knew that Blythe could feel her searching for something. It wasn't an accident, but purposeful.

“You will apologize!” Flicking her wrist, she could make fearful images seem real to Blythe. Blythe would appear to be alone, manifested by her own phobias. She wouldn't see Sophitia, even though she would be a few feet away from her.

Sophitia stood there entranced by her new ability. She was enjoying it and kept the crooked smile playing across her baby face.

What are you afraid of? Are you afraid of being alone? The dark? Maybe you are afraid of something much more...

Her voice sounded different- older. This was something that startled Sophitia. The manifestations continued to writhe around Blythe. She let Blythe hear her humming, eerily distracted by her own powers.

“You will apologize...” It was foolish to use her energy, but her anger had gotten the better of her. For a normal child, she would be throwing a tempter tantrum. She would take some discipline and training, if she was going to be any use to Ana.

[Sage]

Edicius

He groaned as began to experience the spark of life once more, or more appropriately: Undeath. It was an odd sensation, he felt immensely more powerful than the human child he had been, but he felt hollow, and very very thirsty. Ed's eyes opened slowly, and noticed his vision was sharper, much more vivid were the images in the room now. His head swam as he tried to make sense of the new thoughts creeping around his brainspace. He was different. His identity was the same, sure. He was a boy, he was from Algeroth, he was Sophitia's friend. But he was all that and so many more things now, all at once.

" Sophitia. " Ed lifted his head and looked around the room. It was a warzone compared to what it had been just a half an hour earlier. He willed his limbs to cooperate, but they did not seem to think much of him as a master anymore. For the most point, they did their own thing, a wobbling sort of shuffle-dance that Ed could not describe with all the words in Roth at his disposal. He frowned as he attempted to get used to his body again, and stared at the door that had separated him from Sophi. He could hear her voice on the other side now, and instinctively, his powers kicked in by themselves, an altogether new and empowering feeling. The rubble left from Kraven's wound nearby collided with the door and disintegrated it. Edicius spoke as clearly as he could manage, he'd spit out his own blood and had no nourishment, compared to Sophi's very small amount of sustenance. " Sophitia...what's happened to us? " He saw pure malice in her eyes. Edicius knew she had changed as well, and his heart sank.

Kraven

Kraven struggled to fight his delirium. It was hard to tell what was real at this point. He had lost over seventy percent of his blood, and his heart pumped weakly, barely at all. He should have died, he shouldn't be able to think or stay conscious at all. But here he was, and Ana was compensating for his mistakes once more. Kraven had been moved away from the remains of the ruined table and onto a separate space of floor. His vision was hazy, at least everything around Anabel was, but she was as clear a sight as he had ever seen, and there was an intense longing in his eyes as he stared at her. In the brief events here, something had changed in him as well. His want for Anabel VonHagen had intensified, in every possible way. It was not so much that Ana had not ever reciprocated his fanatical obsession with her, she had displayed affection for him on occasion before, but he never would have imagine she would have responded to such advances with anything but ire and punishment.

She was beautiful, dressed or not, and as she bolted around the room rambling to some beings that did not currently exist in Kraven's world. Kraven's hand gravitated toward her, limply, as she burned his blood. It was a strain on her, he could tell, to avoid taking his lifeblood for her own delicacy. He turned his palm up as he continued to reach out for her. His views on Vampirism remained the same, he despised the notion. But how could he deny Anabel so, after she had accepted him in such an open way?

" Why do you not take my blood, if it is what you desire? Do you not know I would willingly give all of myself to you? "

[Jen]

Sophi might be surprised to find that the only thing Blythe feared was, in fact, Anabel VonHagen. In Blythe's mind she would see just how terrificly powerful and intense the woman could be -- at least in this one Vampire's mind. She feared Ana's disinterest the most, leaving her to her own devices and perhaps actually having to find a mate or leave this den. There were perks to being in the good graces of Anabel.

Blythe's eyes were glazed over as she felt herself distanced from the Mother. There was a fear that ran rampant through her body as she realized that Ana would behead her for whatever transgression she had passed. Had she killed Kraven? No. That would encourage torture -- she was just being beheaded. Her whole body shook with fear, but she made not a sound. She was an excellent huntress, even if she was being tricked by a child. It was one of the reasons why she had become one of Ana's favorites. She was pretty, and extremely deadly in physical combat. That she didn't lash out at the new, potentially greater asset to her Mistress -- that was a sign of her devotion to the Mother.

It was only when she heard the faint voice of Ed, which was completely out of place in her thoughts, that Blythe snapped out of the trance that Sophi had her in. Her green eyes widened for a moment as she gained her bearings and then narrowed as she looked at the girl child.

"You will be favored very quickly, child. Pray that the Mother gives you as much protection as she does Kraven." It was a threat. This child could die at this woman's hands now for her transgressions, or later -- if Ana wasn't as keen to keep the girl child as she had been. "Come. Your friend wants to see you."

Without waiting for the child to respond, Blythe scooped the child into her arms knowing that she would be too enfeebled to fight or use that power so intensely anymore. She would need training as well. Blythe mulled over the new information in order to give it to Ana as she set the girl next to Ed.

"The children are up." Blythe spoke loudly in order to get Ana's attention.

"Feed them. Only ripe blood. Male for the girl -- I think she'd benefit from the strength. Watch them until I come up."

Blythe opened the door and issued the order. Moments later two young men in their twenties were pushed through the door -- though one was somewhat more sickly than the other. That one would belong to Ed.

"Now eat."
------------------------

Ana pressed her hand into Kravens and she smiled. He was the only human to make her do that without pleading for his life. In a way he was offering himself to her in a way that no other human ever would.

"Well, Kraven." Ana spoke as she sat down next to him and held his hand. He needed some comfort, and it warmed her old heart to have this man need her. It made her feel alive in ways that she hadn't for centuries. "I don't think that I could live without you. You do very much for me. You are a great asset and a powerful fighter and a strong man. For all the centuries that I have been alive, I have never met a mortal man so entranced by me without an element of fear. It is enticing. You are more to me than blood. Though it is very hard when you bleed."

Ana patted the back of Kraven's hand as she sat there. She wasn't really that great at consoling people. She was a ruler and fairly inept at comforting another person. She had no use for comfort for anything other than her body. Ana looked down at Kraven and leaned down and kissed his mouth. His lips were warm against hers and she had a smile on her lips as she pulled back from him.

"I had almost forgot what it meant to be enamored with someone. You are so warm, Kraven." She spoke as if she had just realized this. He was a danger to her, and she to him, but it was as if she were learning about him all over again.

[Sophitia]

(OOC: Sorry for the long wait. I am still interested. We just finished moving all of our furniture and organizing everything. I will be more frequent now. Really sorry ><:!)

She didn't want male blood. Her new mind was demanding something sweeter. This blood needed to be from a female. Her eyes averted to Blythe, while the critters scurried past her feet. She ignored the man, that had been given to her as a means to feeding. His aura was pure, but tainted with fear. The other man had a history that was worth this punishment, but she didn't have it in her heart to take him either. Ed spoke her name and it briefly caught her attention. She raised a palm in his direction, motioning for him to be silent.

This entire experience was quickly draining her, but she couldn't let Blythe get away with what she had done. The feeling of betrayal and ignorance, wormed in her mind, like a maggot in rotted fruit. When she approached Blythe, she appeared calmer and acted as if she would apologize. She reached for Blythe's hand and gave the appearance of her sickly self. For the first time, she spoke:

“Sit with me. I can not stand the stench of those men. If you do not sit with me, I will bring your nightmares back.” Her eyes were once sea green, but now resembled the color of dark moss. “I don't think you want to upset Ana, do you?” She had been prodding the mind of Blythe, which was still open for investigation. She had foolishly left her mind open, even after the attack. Didn't these Elders ever learn?

Sophitia looked toward her beloved Ed. “He will join me for my meal.” Before Blythe could object, she sent hellish images, into the minds of the young men, meant for them to feast upon. “They are useless now. I think I can only depend on you, Blythe.” Humans were so easy to manipulate and these men had been the easiest of all. She put fear into the youngest man meant for her. He saw images of a painful death. “Give me your blood, Blythe. Make your Mother happy!” If Blythe decided to struggle, she would create the same scene, that she had produced earlier. Ana would not be happy with Blythe- not at all- if that should happen.

She only knew that she needed blood and knew the kind that she wanted. Blythe would taste like nectar, something she knew was forbidden. This knowledge nagged at her, but she didn't care. “If you let me die, you will suffer from Mother.” It was her final warning, followed by an onslaught of images that caressed the mind of watchful Blythe.

[Sage]

Edicius

His eyes gave away his feelings of depression and betrayal, but he would not speak again immediately. He watched as his friend further descended into her transformation-induced mania. It was almost too much to bear to think what he had done to her, but he would not betray her wishes. There was no reason to stop her from what she was doing. She could no longer decay further, or bring harm upon herself, and if she didn't anger one of these creatures, Edicius would respond with the same ferocity he just had, only with the added intensity of an immortal. Strength. He hated the idea of feeding on a human's life...humans. To think of them separately was strange, though it came easily.

But his thirst was great as the men stood before him, and his logic kept coming back to the same conclusion. He would continue to be there for Sophi, and to do that he needed sustenance. Edicius absentmindedly manipulated the nearby fragments of earth littered about the next room over and flung them through the wall separating the rooms, where it collided with the men and attached to their hands and forearms. The rock hardened and warped, drawing their arms behind their back before connecting, creating a binding no average mortal would be able to burst. Then, as he was told, he pounced on the ill man ripping out his throat with ease and drinking deep of his thick red life.

His newly formed fangs were sharp, and durable, making human flesh seem as though gift paper. The feeling was warm, and energizing. His entire body felt as though it was being flooded with the liquid, fueling his own now-eternal life. It was intoxicating, and the very thought that he enjoyed it so easily made him feel as though his soul had completely finished rotting away. Even that was not such an unbearable feeling now. Edicius did not know how it all worked, however. He saw Sophi advancing on the creature. Creature. It was funny how one could think himself separate from both things that he was, while knowing himself to be both. He did not even know whether the creature could bleed, had it's own blood, or whether feeding on it would sustain Sophi.

But she wanted to try, and Edicius would make Blythe oblige her. He felt completely filled to the brim with magical energy, like never before. Algerothians made magic with their own life force, and now he had an endless supply. Did that mean that he would never be able to tire from his kinetic abilities ever again? It wouldn't take him long to figure out. Blythe may not have the mental weakness that would allow her to be preyed upon as easily as mortal men...but how would she fair against Ed physically and supernaturally restraining her. He grinned wide as he encircled himself with levitated earth from the wound in the floor.

" Sophi wants you to submit her now. Will you deny her? "

Kraven

His mind surged with pleasure chemically and metaphysically from his own body's production of happy, and his compulsion to be needed and wanted by Ana, both fueled by her accepting him. He was only very slightly distracted by the events upstairs. He could stand now, do his duties for Ana by clashing his own mental talents against the girl attempting to eat Blythe's face, or render Ed unconscious with his physical abilities, but for once he did not feel compelled. In part, because he wouldn't dare leave this beautiful creature for such selfish exploits. He couldn't imagine every leaving her embrace as she willingly kissed him, reciprocating his feelings, at least partially.

The human did not smile, however. Instead his gaze fixed on Ana, staring at Ana until it was almost excrutiating having to witness such beauty without ravaging it.

" And I never could have imagined one so powerful could be so gentle and kind to one such as myself, you are the most extraordinary and beautiful entity in existence, and I dare anyone to say otherwise. On top of that, you don't mind sitting around with me in your unmentionables, this is perhaps the greatest night of all my long life. "

[Jen]

Blythe laughed and looked at the two children. Her mind was carefully guarded now against the girl and she watched the boy destroy even more of his Mistress' home. Without a word she grabbed a knife from her belt and slit her wrist open. Nothing came out, and nothing would come out as she flayed some skin from muscle. She was adept at that, carving flesh.

"You children are mistaken if you think you will encourage blood to flow through these veins. My heart has been stopped for well over two hundred years."

Blythe laughed again, a tinkling pretty little laugh. She was very attractive as was Ana's discriminatory taste. She licked her wound like an animal, briefly showing her primal behavior, before returning her knife to her belt. She was one of Ana's elites -- it was a mark of her trade and she was well respected among the vampires. That she fell prey to the whims of these children was entirely on the basis that she liked to please Anabel Von Hagen. The children's abilities were not under her perview, but she wished that she had known about the girl's powers at least. Perhaps the Mother didn't know about her...

"Mistress..."

------------------

"When you are ready, come upstairs." Ana spoke to Kraven with a smile. She walked over to the table, up the splintered wood for a little way, and then sprang for the hole in the floor. With a grace that denied her ability to inflict death on the living, Ana sauntered into the room wearing practically nothing. She motioned at Blythe and then the girl.

"Why hasn't she eaten?"

"She wanted my blood."

Ana barked a laugh and looked at the child. She was spiteful and a bit mad, she could see it in her dark little eyes. Ana wasn't just her Mistress, but the very Mother of all Vampires in existence. The various sects, the strange little cults, the roaming bands of death and destruction -- they were all her children. She was the child of a God. Stranger things had happened, but then most of them tended to happen in Kalmarden.

"You will eat." Ana focused her attention on Sophi for a moment. It was an order and one that Sophi would be unable to resist. "You will eat whatever I feed you until you are ready to hunt on your own. You will not hunt on your own for three cycles of the moon. Am I understood?"

With royalty in the human sphere of existence, there were options. With Anabel, her word was law and her command was unavoidable. She might not appear as lavish as most courts of the world, but then when you'd lived as long as she had comfort and solitude were paramount.

"Blythe, will you get my coat. I feel a draft." Ana wandered over to the hole in the floor and looked into the dark void. She could see fine, but she wasn't able to see Kraven where she stood. When Blythe brought her coat, she slid her arms through and buttoned it up, letting the long folds of the riding cloak fall to cover her nakedness. She was awash in her own thoughts as she paced away from the hole in the floor to where Ed stood trying to act brave. She motioned to her house and its destroyed state.

"You will mend this manor. You destroyed it, you will fix it. You will have no assistance and you will only work with minimal feedings." Ana leaned forward to become eye level with the boy. Her eyes were a stark shade of icy green and she smiled. Such a gesture was more deadly than any wild animal could ever muster. "Rebellion is not an option any longer for you. There is no way to escape me and you would do better to be in my favor than out of it. You will be watched and you will do as you are told or you will die. Am I understood?"